M&A Performance Across the Business Cycles

The purpose of this thesis is to test if the depth of business cycles, i.e. if the
acquisition is performed early or late within a cycle, affects performance.
The intention is to contribute to M&A research by using stock market data
and accounting data from selected companies to bring further light on postperformance research by adding the variable of business cycles. The authors
also wish to shed light on these issues by investigating whether acquisitions
undertaken in boom and bust periods differ in success rate.
This study is undertaken using a quantitative approach. The methodology
has been completed to fit the purpose of the thesis and the given time frame.
Two statistical tests, Student´s t-test and Wilcoxon Test,... (More)

The purpose of this thesis is to test if the depth of business cycles, i.e. if the
acquisition is performed early or late within a cycle, affects performance.
The intention is to contribute to M&A research by using stock market data
and accounting data from selected companies to bring further light on postperformance research by adding the variable of business cycles. The authors
also wish to shed light on these issues by investigating whether acquisitions
undertaken in boom and bust periods differ in success rate.
This study is undertaken using a quantitative approach. The methodology
has been completed to fit the purpose of the thesis and the given time frame.
Two statistical tests, Student´s t-test and Wilcoxon Test, have also been
performed in order to determine significance of the results
The findings of this thesis imply that the abnormal returns of M&As varies
across the business cycle. This suggests that top management at companies
could gain a lot if they pay more attention to the business cycle and when to
conduct M&As. The results of this thesis complement existing research on
M&A performance in business cycles, e.g. Bouwman et al. (2007) and
Pangarkar and Lie (2004), but it also adds to research by measuring
performance in terms of depth of each business cycle. (Less)

@misc{3242208,
abstract = {The purpose of this thesis is to test if the depth of business cycles, i.e. if the
acquisition is performed early or late within a cycle, affects performance.
The intention is to contribute to M&A research by using stock market data
and accounting data from selected companies to bring further light on postperformance research by adding the variable of business cycles. The authors
also wish to shed light on these issues by investigating whether acquisitions
undertaken in boom and bust periods differ in success rate.
This study is undertaken using a quantitative approach. The methodology
has been completed to fit the purpose of the thesis and the given time frame.
Two statistical tests, Student´s t-test and Wilcoxon Test, have also been
performed in order to determine significance of the results
The findings of this thesis imply that the abnormal returns of M&As varies
across the business cycle. This suggests that top management at companies
could gain a lot if they pay more attention to the business cycle and when to
conduct M&As. The results of this thesis complement existing research on
M&A performance in business cycles, e.g. Bouwman et al. (2007) and
Pangarkar and Lie (2004), but it also adds to research by measuring
performance in terms of depth of each business cycle.},
author = {Hemberg, Johan and Johansson, Erik},
keyword = {M&A,Business Cycles,Abnormal Returns,Event Study.},
language = {eng},
note = {Student Paper},
title = {M&A Performance Across the Business Cycles},
year = {2012},
}